I'm wondering what the longest-running regular role in sci-fi is, played by the same actor. Most SF shows don't run long in the first place, so we're pretty narrowed. What do we have here?
-Doctor Who lasted twenty-seven (now twenty-nine) years, but not consecutively and with a constantly changing cast. The longest-lasting Doctor was Tom Baker, with seven years.
-Most of the regulars on TNG, DS9 and VOY all had seven years.
-Amanda Tapping and Chris Judge as Samantha Carter and Teal'c on SG-1 will have ten years by the end of next year.
-Michael Shanks took the sixth year "off", but still managed three pivotal appearances as Daniel Jackson and another two as Thor in the same show. He essentially skipped out on being the secondary character in all the other episodes that season, despite being a recurring character. So would he have ten years?
-By the same token, Michael Dorn did seven years as Worf for TNG, but before doing it again for four years on DS9 he did the "Generations" movie during the year between. So it's not eleven CONSECUTIVE years, but it's still eleven years...
Anyone else?
Mark
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
I'd probably be willing to cut Michael Dorn a break, seeing how his "break" was only one year (DS9's third season), and he spent a big chunk of that year filming Generations. I'd call it "technically consecutive", myself. Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
The Stargate cast is the longest lived that I can think of.
I'm not sure we can count Dorn's Worf as consecutive, because there was a time that he wasn't under contract to play the character, IIRC.
On a side note, what was the deal with Shanks leaving during season 6? Was it that he just wanted the season off with the full intention of returning for season 7? Or did he want to leave not knowing if he'd come back? The addition of Jonas to the cast didn't seem to be quite worked out as of the season 5 finale, in which neither Jonas nor Daniel appeared (nor was Shanks credited).
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
We can really get obscure here, if we don't limit ourselves to TV series. The longest one I found was Adele Ronson and Edgar Stehli, who voice Wilma Dearing and Dr. Huer in the Buck Rogers radio series. They did this four times a week for 15 years from 1932 to 1947. Buck was done by several different people.
B.J.
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
Does Majel playing the voice of the computer for a really long time count?
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I'd count it, if it were a consecutive roll. But it wasn't. However, if you start from the first use of her voice on TNG, count her "appearances" as the runabout voice on DS9, and all of Voyager's run, as well as the movies in between... you might be able to make a case for it being a consecutive roll from early TNG through the end of Voyager. But you couldn't count TOS.
Posted by Kazeite (Member # 970) on :
And what about Colm Meaney? Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
Colm wasn't a regular on anything but DS9. And while he had some meaty stuff to do on occasion on TNG (culminating in "The Wounded", I'd say), he really wasn't anything but a recurring secondary character. Likewise, Majel as the computer was recurring and not much more than a symbolic thing.
I'm talking about lead characters here... So I'd guess that Tapping and Judge rule the roost here so far in television, and the Buck Rogers people (man, how did you know that?) for radio. If we don't count consecutive periods, then Dorn gets the television honor for 11 seasons with Worf.
Mark
Posted by FawnDoo (Member # 1421) on :
What about Mitch Pileggi or William B. Davis' stint on the X-Files? Granted they weren't series regulars and didn't appear in every episode but they managed, I think, quite a long run at it.
Come to that James Marsters made a good showing of it with Spike...what was it, six years on Buffy and one on Angel? David Boreanaz managed eight: three on Buffy and five on his own show.
Of course on the other side of things, who would be the shortest running regular? Denise Crosby? Brent Stait?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Every castmember on every show that got cancelled by the second episode?
Posted by Omega (Member # 91) on :
For a long running show, my guess would be Doyle.
Posted by FawnDoo (Member # 1421) on :
quote:Originally posted by Sol System: Every castmember on every show that got cancelled by the second episode?
Oooops sorry, I really should have qualified: shortest serving regular on a show that went on to run for a while...otherwise the entire cast of Mercy Point could be put on the list! :-D
Posted by Mucus (Member # 24) on :
quote:Originally posted by Omega: For a long running show, my guess would be Doyle.
Are we going to count re-casting? Depending on if SG:A will count as a long running show, the first Dr. Elizabeth Weir would be even shorter.
Babylon 5 would also have a number of short-lived regulars with little screentime like Keffer or Na'Toth. Depending on how you look at it, they also lost a number of "regulars" going from the pilot to the series. (Takashima and the doctor)
Star Trek would even have a couple of "regulars" being lost between the pilot and the series (Hunter and Number One).
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
How long was Tom Baker the doctor on Dr. Who?
You could maybe also say that Frakes and Sirtis have been pushing their characters appearences for... 18 years??
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: ...and the Buck Rogers people (man, how did you know that?) for radio.
Lucky (but educated) guess, really. I'd actually thought of early sci-fi serials at first, and then the Wikipedia entry for Buck Rogers led me to that.
B.J.
Posted by Malnurtured Snay (Member # 411) on :
How's about Richard Belzer's Detective John Munch? Seven years on "Homicide: Life on the Street", then seven years as Munch on "Law and Order: Special Victim's Unit", and I mention him here because of a guest appearance on "The X-Files" as ... ready for it? ... Detective John Munch ("Unusual Suspects"), in the flashback episode that revealed Mulder's relationship with that geeky trio.
(He also appeared as John Munch in "Arrested Development", Law and Order, L&O: Trial by Jury, and The Beat, if memory serves)
Posted by Vice-Admiral Michael T. Colorge (Member # 144) on :
What about the Lost In Space folks?
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Well, there's an interesting point about Richard Belzer. I wonder who has the record for playing the same character on the greatest number of different shows?
And, to answer my own question... According to his information on the IMDb, he tied with John Ratzenberger and George Wendt by playing the same character in six different prime-time shows. Except that must have been before he was on "Arrested Development".
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I can just barely remember him showing up on the X-Files. Does the same company own X-Files and L&O? I'm not sure how they worked that with getting rights for a character from one network to appear another network's show...
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Wow. Last time I saw that site, the chart was only available as an Excel file.
It's an interesting idea, but they've clearly taken it way too far. Claiming that "Firefly" and "Battlestar Galactica" are in the same universe because the Firefly model showed up in the background of a BG space shot is just silly. Same for claiming that "The John Laroquette Show" is part of the Star Trek universe because they both used the name "Yoyodyne" at some point.
Posted by Vice-Admiral Michael T. Colorge (Member # 144) on :
That chart is a abit of a stretch... can someone modify it to reflect true crossovers?
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
I haven't looked too deeply into the page - basically read the first page of 'rules'... but how do they reconcile something like Ally McBeal and The Practice - they had a nice lot of cross overs but then there was that ONE episode that threw everything out of whack when someone on Ally McBeal was watching an episode of The Practice!! LOL! - I think Ally or Renee were watching the episode with the head in bag.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
OK some of that is full of shit - they link Party of Five with the X-Files - I think I know where - there was an episode in a later season that panned over two graves that had the names of the parents that died in the show. Can anyone remember the episode? It might not have been even the X-Files!
edit: The Salingers. That is the link they use.
How does the John Larroquette Show link to Trek!?! That's just crazy.
I think they also forgot that an episode of the Nanny onenight involved a cross-over with three other shows across three networks I think. Something involved Elizabeth Taylor's pearls.
There is a possible shakey Twin Peaks/X-Files connection... if you are willing to believe that Mulder originally had a different name and often cross-dressed!
Don S. Davis (General Hammond) didn't appear as the same CHARACTER - but similar military types in X-Files (Scully's Father), SG1 - Hammond and Twin Peaks Bobby Briggs' father.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"I think they also forgot that an episode of the Nanny onenight involved a cross-over with three other shows across three networks I think. Something involved Elizabeth Taylor's pearls."
No, they didn't. Read the list of crossovers.
"...but how do they reconcile something like Ally McBeal and The Practice - they had a nice lot of cross overs but then there was that ONE episode that threw everything out of whack when someone on Ally McBeal was watching an episode of The Practice!!"
Well, if their claim is that all of the shows are part of a huge dream, anyway, I guess anything can happen.
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